Moore, Kinnear set for ‘English Teacher’

Indie comedy from TV director Craig Zisk

Julianne Moore and Greg Kinnear have signed to star in Artina Films’ indie comedy “The English Teacher,” which will mark the feature directorial debut of veteran TV helmer Craig Zisk.

Dan and Stacy Chariton wrote the script, which follows a high school English teacher Linda Sinclair (Moore) whose life is upended when a former star pupil returns to her small town after failing miserably as a playwright in New York.

Artina Films’ Naomi Despres, Robert Salerno and Matthew Chausse are producing alongside Ben LeClair. Ron Curtis will exec produce the pic, which starts production next month in Gotham.

Kim Fox of Inferno Entertainment will handle international sales, having previously handled “The Kids Are All Right.”

“English Teacher” marks the first pic Artina has assembled through its new financing apparatus, which includes an exclusive alliance with Procinvest, a French film financing fund. Structure of the deal is designed to produce three films a year in the $5 million-$25 million range.

Artina recently produced Lynne Ramsay’s Tilda Swinton starrer “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and is in post-production on Nicholas Jarecki’s “Arbitrage,” which stars Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon.

Moore, who most recently starred in “Crazy Stupid Love,” is coming off back-to-back Golden Globe nominations for her work in “The Kids Are All Right” and Tom Ford’s Artina-produced drama “A Single Man.” Thesp will soon be seen as Sarah Palin in Jay Roach’s HBO pic “Game Change.”